Agent of Chaos

Few reviews of this obscure old sf chestnut really tackle its themes viewpoints. This was Spinrad's 2nd novel. He was still a few releases away from wide recognition, but shows here some real ambition creativity. While the book does get a little full of itself at times the rather wooden characters show the golden age sf weakness of talking too much, he spun a surprisingly unique effective political focus into an otherwise typical space opera. The story revolves around a fascinating philosophy of chaos as the natural state of the cosmos, with the order imposed by leaders as antithetical to the human destiny. It's an anarchist political outlook presented in cosmological terms. He does well with this premise, plotting out some intricate political shenanigans as three different parties exploit each other while trying to impose their visions, with dueling strategies for creating order or chaos. In the process, he delivers some insightful ruminations on power, tyranny freedom-- what those seemingly cut-and-dried terms mean on a cosmic scale. While parts are pretty outdated it shows many of the minor weaknesses of its genre at the time, he delivered what might be the most ambitious sf political exploration this side of Frank Herbert or Anthony Burgess. The fact that this ambition actually leads to readable results is reason to pick up this lost classic if you come across it.--doomsdayer520 (edited)